Posted on: Tuesday, March 3, 2015

When we were in Florida for the holidays, the WHOLE family was in Florida. We had a blast and I really think that it mentally helped me through this winter. It was a wonderful break at the perfect time, and although I’m excited to go back in a couple months, I’m not dying to get there like I was last Spring. Last December, we were there for Christmas, my parents’ anniversary, and New Year’s Eve, although none of us are big into the New Year’s party scene. And as part of our trip, my parents had Claire with Simple Treasures Photography come take photos of ALL of us on the beach! Something that we definitely haven’t done together in possibly over ten years… I just love the large group shots (aren’t those almost impossible to get?!) and I can’t wait to get them framed on our wall!

Anabelle was actually not having the photos at all. She just wanted to play in the sand. Although you can’t tell by the wonderful shots that Claire captured!

Posted on: Monday, March 2, 2015

My bump is bumpin’! I’m finally dying to wear fitted clothes again. At first I love these roomy outfits: flared out skirts, cozy sweaters, roomy button ups. But now that my bump is big enough to obviously be a baby belly and not just a little too much lunch, I finally want to transition back into some more fitted clothes to show it off! But for now, this skirt is just right. Long enough not to be too short when the belly pushes it out, and a high waisted elastic waist band to comfortably adjust above my belly.

Posted on: Wednesday, February 25, 2015

It took me a while to find nightstands for our room. Ever since we’ve been married we’ve had mismatched nightstands, and I was the one who had the short or flimsy ones… But when I spotted these at my local consignment shop for about $30 a piece, I knew they perfect when met all my requirements! I needed nightstands to match our bedroom furniture’s retro style, I needed them to be skinny so that they could fit in the guest room when we eventually replace our bedroom set and transferred the furniture into an upstairs guest bedroom, and I needed multiple drawers. I kid you not, these are absolutely perfect. Well minus being pretty heavily worn and beat up…

Structurally, these nightstands were perfect, but cosmetically they were kind of a mess. Totally beat up all over, water damage on the top, and even a missing layer of wood sporadically on the top of one. The drawers, however, really were perfect in every way. Since I wanted to preserve the original quality of these nightstands in as many ways as I could, I decided to leave the drawers as is and just paint the frame. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. And Kevin just loves them. They are unique, one of a kind, and may as well have been professionally done.

I used Annie Sloan Pure White Chalk Paint. I applied 3 coats, but it really only needed 2. Once I applied the third coat, I had a completely solid coat of white, which would have looked great had the wood not been popping up from water damage or who knows what. But since the surface wasn’t smooth, I decided that I needed to sand it down. It wasn’t possible to sand away the imperfections of the wood, but by sanding down the paint, I was able to pull the imperfections out in a good way. The third coat of paint made it so I had a lot more to sand, but honestly I wasn’t positive that I wanted to sand till I had already applied that last coat.

I was nervous about sanding. I’ve used Annie Sloan for so many pieces of furniture in our house by now, but I’ve never applied any sanding techniques. I really don’t know how I could have messed it up though. I started with the edges because I knew that would look naturally beat up once I sanded it down. Then I worked on the sides. I had a few areas on the sides where something from the wood was bleeding through the paint no matter how many coats I applied. So I started with those areas. I wanted to sand them down enough that you either didn’t see the spots, or that you didn’t notice them because the uneven-ness in the distressed paint job made them blend in. The sides were great practice and so then I started sanding the top. I really didn’t know how the top would turn out, but I actually love that every little imperfection popped through. It really added another level of character to the nightstands. Then with a coat of Annie Sloan clear wax, I was done.

You can see here the water damage and where the slivers of wood are missing, yet how even though I painted to cover this up, sanding it back down actually allowed another level of character to shine through.

This might not have been the most romantic way to spend our Valentine’s Day, but we were both so motivated that we couldn’t help but cheer each other on in a few of the projects that had been sitting around the house waiting for us. So in other words, it was the perfect way for us to spend Valentine’s Day! Now we only have a couple more things and our bedroom will be completely done! Well, round #1 anyway…

Welcome to my little blog! My name is Leigh. Husband is Kevin. Baby girl is Anabelle. This is my place where I write about all things motherhood and real life! Take off your shoes, grab a latte and stay a while as I share with you my family, DIY's, home decorating, tasty treats, personal style, and fabulous adventures.